Bullshifters Fugu First let's get it clear. Exotica has nothing to do with erotica. Comprende! Not that there's anything wrong with erotica, after all there is a time and place for everything. Just not here at this moment. Exotica is about the excitingly strange. Unusual things that grab our curiosity. Exotica is just a fancy way of saying "odd" or "strange" or "wacked". Although at Kohones we don't believe in meaningless risk or mindless stunts, we are interested in curiously strange customs, traditions and accomplishments as well as the motivation behind the people pursuing their passions. Bullshifters™ In Spain there is an old custom known as "Running with the Bulls". It takes place during the San Fermin Festival in the town of Pamplona every July. Very likely you've seen film or video clips. Mobs of people running down the streets with bulls on the loose. Hey, maybe you've even been there ( yeah, sure you have). At kohones we call this Bullshifting and we call the runners Bullshifters. Running directly along side the bull is the "height of bravery" for bullshifters. But you better be fast and you better be agile or you'll quickly experience the "height of pain"- - and we do mean height, like about ten feet when that bull tosses you like a rag doll (whoopee). So why do they do it? Is it for the chance to capture "15 minutes" of fame? Is it about pride? Or is it the cerveza? Is it tradition inspired kohones or drunken stupidity? Fugu The Japanese have a centuries old tradition of eating a fish called Fugu, which is also known as Blowfish or Puffer fish. This ugly, scaleless and slimy fish gets its name from its ability to swell up or inflate to keep predators from eating it. You know how it is, the big fish eat the little fish, the little fish eat the tiny fish and so on. Anyway, this sucker is loaded with a powerful poison called tetrodotoxin. It's in the fugu's liver, gonads, intestines and skin. If you don't know what you're doing when you slice that sucker up for dinner you'll surely prepare the last supper. That's why only specially trained and licensed chefs are allowed to prepare it. That's right a license is needed to be a fugu chef. Sounds fishy but its true. But why do some people eat this? A great delicacy? Tastier than a burrito? The ninja knives trained chef removed all the poison? Well not quite. They eat it precisely because ninja chef knows how to leave just enough fugu toxin to give diners a tingling in their lips and tongues and even a lightheadedness. An out of this world experience is what they seek. Groovy, but keep in mind that there is no way to guarantee that too much toxin doesn't get into your tasty morsels thereby giving you an "on your way out of this world experience". If you get too much toxin and if you are lucky, the doctors in the local friendly emergency room will overcome your dizziness, paralyzing lungs, racing heart, nausea, vomiting, internal bleeding and other assorted uncomfortable symptoms. We are sure this experience will leave you more appreciative of the "Big Chef" up in the sky and of Big Macs for the rest of your life. If the doctors fail however, you can rest ( in peace) assured that you will know for sure where Elvis really is. Fugu. An ancient rite to be appreciated or recipe for last rites? Try some or fugu-et about it? Are you breaking boundaries? We want know! E-mail us at big@kohones.com Copyright© 1999 by Chacha Bear Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved